#'s 3 and 4 Kyoto to Osaka, Then Home

My final entry in my travel blog is being done from home. I made it back, and I am fighting off jet lag while trying to type this.

Why am I writing this from home? Well, I will tell you. If you are ever in Osaka, Japan do not stay at the New Hankyu Hotel. Despite being in the most technologically advanced society in the world, they do not have internet access in their hotel rooms. Also, their rooms are small and their breakfast buffet was below average, though they were the only I ate at that offered octopus balls.



Before we left Kyoto, city of temples, we had to stop at one more, Kiyomizu Temple. This Buddhist temple is on a forested hillside just outside of Kyoto. It is probably the most visited temple in Kyoto, and apparently it was featured in several scenes in The Last Samurai, though walking through it did not bring back any memories from the film.


Below is the golden Buddha statue. It is not particularly large, but this temple is probably the first one built in Kyoto, dating from around the 8th century.
This temple is also famous for its spring. The flowing spring water is divided up into 3 streams. The 3 three streams claim to offer you peace, longevity, or wisdom, depending on which one you drink from. The modern Japanese have even added an infrared sanitizing machine to purify the communal dippers that people drink from.
Since this is the most visited temple in the city, school groups are everywhere. If you are a foreigner be prepared to be stopped by small groups of Japanese students who want to talk to you in English. Apparently, this has been a popular assignment in Japanese schools for over 20 years. Groups of students compete to see how many English speakers they can interview. Below is the second group of students who stopped me. The first group took my picture and gave me a postcard from their school so I can write to them. Sounds like a great class assignment to me.

After lunch at a Japanese Italian restaurant, we took an hour and a half bus ride to Osaka. And of course, we visited the local castle, appropriately named Osaka Castle. The castle, which survived WW II bombing, is a reconstruction because the Japanese destroyed it themselves as they wrestled for control of the strategic area of Osaka in the 1600's and 1800's.

As always, these castles offer great panoramic views of their home city because they usually sit in the center of the town. Osaka is Japan's third largest city, only Tokyo and Yokohama are larger, but since Yokohama is a suburb of Tokyo, Osaka is really Japan's "second city."


In the one of its downtown areas, Osaka has an 1.5 mile outdoor shopping mall. Here is one of those classic images from a Japanese city, the seven story wall of electronic advertisements.

After walking and walking that night, we awoke and drove to Kansai international airport, which sits on a manmade island in Osaka's bay. It was a very impressive engineering feat, but a necessary one since Japan is a very crowded place with precious little room for new construction.

I guess I need to give a final reflection here at the end of my blog. I know I am a very lucky person to be able to take this trip. The Freeman Foundation, Columbia University, and The National Consortium for Teaching about Asia were more than generous in providing the funding and organization. Notre Dame High School was very accomodating in letting me miss a week of school for this once in a lifetime experience. Finally, I could not have done any of this without my loving and patient wife, Jennifer, who looked after house and children while I was gone.

The two cultures I visited were both strange and familiar. Human beings are human beings and react to each other in very predictable ways, and yet, I knew I was very far from home.

To me, China felt like the vast sprawling country it is. The people there reminded me alot of Americans. They can be agressive and driven, especially when they are trying to convince you to buy something. Many times, normal converstations between people on the street seemed like shouting matches as two people barked at each other in Mandarin. Yet, the Chinese could also be humble and accomodating. I got the sense they all enjoyed life and felt great pride in their country and their ancient culture.

As noted befoe, Japan was completely different. Their culture of honor and manners was pervasive. I certainly felt more at home in Japan because its standard of living is similar to America, yet their people are far different. The swagger and confidence that many American possess seems to be replaced with propriety and focus in the Japanese. It was quite evident of thier cultural pride as well. In both countries, the historical places we visited were jam packed with native.

These are just some jet lagged impressions.

I am sure I will write more about this later.

Chuck Newel
Chattanooga, TN
10/26/08

Kyoto Day 1

I am back at my hotel now, and have time to blog, so I will. Thursday in Kyoto was a very busy day. If I do not write now, I may not have time to record all that we have seen and done.

The day began with me looking out my hotel window and seeing the tallest pagoda in Japan. This majestic tower is part of Ninna-ji Temple complex. We did not visit the temple, but the image of the pagoda is a perfect example of how the new and old are juxtaposed here in the ancient imperial capital.



Our first official stop was at the Zen Buddhist Temple of Ryoanji. It is most famous for its rock garden. If you have ever seen a picture of a Zen rock garden it is probably from this temple. The garden contains 15 large stones, and if you are sitting and meditating in front of the garden, you cannot see all 15 stones. This re-enforces the idea that no one is perfect. My Fuji camera must be even more imperfect because I could only capture 7 stones at one time.


This temple is more than just a rock garden. It is set on a side of a hill just outside Kyoto. It has a beautiful lake, and you can just start to see the fall colors in this part of Japan. If you look closely, you can see a red tori gate on the island. The gate means that the island is home to a Shinto spirit or kami.After the Zen temple, we went to Nijo Castle in the center of Kyoto. This was the second castle of the Tokugawa shoguns. They maintained their first castle in Edo(now Tokyo), but they maintained this castle in the imperial capital to ensure that the emperor did not become too powerful and try to remove the shogun as commander of all the feudal armies of Japan. The castle is famous for its nightingale floor. Underneath the floor boards are a series of nails and clamps so that the floor squeaks like the songs of nightingales. It is a pleasing sounds, but it was also a precaution against ninja or other assassins trying to creep into the castle and murder the shogun.

After the castle, it was off to another Zen temple, the Silver Pavilion. The original plan was to have the pagoda at this temple covered with silver. However, it was never done. Below you can see that pagoda is under renovation. Next to it, you can see a sand and salt Zen garden that was created for meditative contemplation. The temple's garden path led me to this view of the pagoda and the city of Kyoto beyond.

After so many temples, many in our group were glad to have a couple of hours shopping time at the Kyoto Handicraft Center. It had a lunch buffet and 6 floors of shopping excitement. It was a mixture of authentic crafts and touristy trinkets.


It was no surprise to discover that close to the handicraft center was another shrine. In this case it was the Heian Jingu Shrine. This was built in the late 1800's and contains the remains of two emperors of Japan. The emperor was once worshiped as a Shinto god. Thus, it is not surprising that this shrine has the largest tori gate in the world.Inside most Shinto shrines, much of the work is done by pure young maidens. The one below is taking time to sweep.


We returned to the hotel to freshen up, and then it was off to dinner. We had shabu shabu. This means that in the middle of each table was a heated pot of water and oil. The waitress brought us vegetables and thinly sliced beef and pork, which we put into the heated liquid. When the food was cooked, we pulled it out and dipped into different types of sauces. It was quite good, much like Mongolian barbecue without the hot grill.

After dinner, we walked to the Gion district, the place in Kyoto where you can still be entertained by geisha. Though we did not have the money or inclination to track down one of these courtesans, we did go to the Kyoto Gion Corner. At this small theater, we were entertained by some classic Japanese art forms, like Bunraku puppetry. Three men controlled the one puppet shown below.

We have one more morning in Kyoto. It will rain again tomorrow, but that will not stop us from visiting one more temple. After that, we bus to Osaka where we will visit another castle before we prepare for our flight home on Saturday.

Chuck Newell
Kyoto, Japan
10/23/08

Rainy Day in Kyoto

Attention faithful readers, we have had a busy but rainy day here is Kyoto. Dr. Ellington, our leader and guide, is correct; you cannot spit in Kyoto without hitting a shrine or temple. We have been very busy today and still have more activities tonight.

Therefore, I may not be able to post a full entry until tomorrow night in Osaka. We are about to rush down to the lobby and go to dinner and a show that will feature traditional Japanese performing arts, i.e. kabuki, bunraku, etc.

I will give you pictures and details as soon as possible.

Chuck Newell
Kyoto, Japan
10/23/08

Nara to Kyoto

Since we were in the ancient capital of Japan, Nara, the people in charge of our tour decided we should stay in a traditional Japanese inn. Below you see the tatami mats on the floor. At night futons are rolled out onto the tatami and you sleep right on the floor. I actually slept well and woke up refreshed.The inn also featured traditional Japanese baths. They fill up the tub below each night and you are supposed to bath communally. There were separate rooms for men and women. However, I just waited until the next morning to shower by myself. I have not completely drunk the Japanese kool-aid, if you know what I mean.
Since Nara is the center of Buddhism and Shinto in Japan. It is a very spiritual city. For example, long ago it was established that the deer in Nara are messengers of the gods. Thus, they have free run of the place. They lay about in the many parks of the city and cross the street whenever they feel like it, though few die each year from being hit by cars. You can buy deer food and little stands on the side of the road to feed them. If you say "bow," they will actually bow their heads before taking the little cake from you. However, they are just as likely to sneak up behind you and eat the paper bag out of your hand. This messenger below is obviously on his lunch break. I think they have a very strong union.
Before we left Nara, we visited one last temple, Horyu-Ji. This small complex below is the oldest Buddhist temple in Japan. People were worshiping at the main building the morning we were there. The 5 story pagoda (or stupa) in the background is the 2nd tallest in Japan. In Kyoto we will see the tallest.
Kyoto was just a short train ride away. It was rainy day, and slow driving showers followed us everywhere. Luckily, after we checked in to the hotel, the only place we toured was inside. Below is Sanjusangen-do, yet another Buddhist temple. This place claims to be the longest wooden building in th world. It needed to be. Even though we could not take pictures inside, I was blown away by the 1000 golden bodhisattvas in the long hall of the temple. This temple is also has the largest collection of such statues in the world. All these iron goddesses of mercy, as they are referred to in China, surround a much larger Buddha statue. It was a very serene and contemplative place.

Well, it was a rainy night Kyoto, and we wandered the streets. However, they are not great stories to tell or pictures to post. One more day in Kyoto tomorrow. and one day closer to going home.

Chuck Newell
Kyoto, Japan
10/22/08

Nagoya to Nara

We hopped on the bullet train (or shankansen[sic]) to go from Nagoya to Nara. It was a smooth and pleasant ride, though the maglev train in China is faster.
Nara is the ancient capital of Japan. It was constructed in 700's (AD) and was the eastern terminus of the great silk road. It was here also that Buddhism was introduced to Japan. Thus, there are many temples and gardens in this city, which has still has some ancient architecture because it was not bombed during WW II. Below is one of the largest Buddha's in the world. If I remember correctly, it is the largest indoor Buddha. Five men can easily stand in the palm of his hand. There is a column at the back of the temple with a hole in its base. The hole is the same size as one of the statue's nostril. If you can pass through the hole, it is said that when you die you will easily pass into heaven. Mostly young children did this, but one of the male teachers in our group slid through. Apparently he has a free pass the rest of his life.
Here a I am drinking free Hojicha (roasted green tea) in a Buddhist monastery. Life does not get any better.
On the same hillside as the free tea room at the monastery is Kasuga Grand Shrine, the most important Shinto shrine in Japan. Shinto is Japan's native religion. They believe that everything in nature has a spirit or kami. It was interesting to note that the Japanese are not exclusively one religion the Buddhist temple and Shinto shrine are almost one complex. Below is the base of a 800 year old tree at the Kasuga Shrine. The Japanese would see this as the home of spirit, so it is in a prominent place in the shrine.


Wednesday morning, we will tour more sites in Nara and then catch a train to Kyoto. The Japanese moved their capital from Nara to Kyoto because the Buddhist temples became too powerful in Nara. The temples actually had their own private armies, which were more powerful than the emperor's forces.

Chuck Newell
Nara, Japan
10/21/08

Nagoya Day 2

Today was the day we visited Japanese schools. But before we go there, how about a morning view of the ultra-modern Nagoya skyline?

The first school we visited was Nagoya Junior High School. Like the old jr. high in America, it is for grades 6-9. Once students reach 9th grade the must take a difficult year end exam to make it to high school. This school is also a teaching lab for Aichi University of Education, so we saw many students observing classes as we toured. This school also specializes in helping returnee students. In other words, many Japanese work overseas and take their families with them. This school helps students reacclimate to Japanese "lifestyle and behavior," according to the school's brochure.
Like Japanese homes, you are required to remove your shoes in Japanese school. The school let us borrow these fake crocs as we walked the hallways. However, to enter the music room, we had to walk only in our socks. I do not know why that is.

One of the classes we visited was a science class. The students here were more talkative and animated than they were in the Chinese school we visited, but still well behaved and respectful fo their teacher. I do not know the name of the science teacher in this class, but you Notre Dame people out there can just call him Irvin San.

We traveled some distance to visit a Japanese high school. On the way there we stopped at a park, that turned out to be a Shinto shrine, to have lunch. When it is open, local people come to honor the local kami, or gods, and ask them for favors.
Since we were eating on the run, our bus driver was nice enough to provide us with hot water in a thermos so we could eat a Japanese favorite, ramen noodles. The noodles are available in a various flavors at every convenience store. They give you a pair of wooden chopsticks with each purchase, so all you need to do is add water. Here I am slurping my noodles Japanese style.
The picture below is of Aichi University of Education Attached High School. Obviously, it also serves as a laboratory school for the local teaching college. We again had to remove our shoes, but this time we had to wear ill fitting green slippers. We toured the school and met the English club and told the students about life and school in America. Most them understood English well, but they were too shy or hesitant to speak. We then met with a handful of Japanese teachers who have worked with foreign schools over the internet. I am going to try and work with a junior college teacher to help her students learn English. Hopefully, my students will soon be able to communicate with Japanese students.
After we left the school, we came back to the hotel for a fancy 5 course dinner. By the way, one of the courses was sashimi (raw fish). Some of the teachers joined us, and we talked further about electronic collaboration.

Tonight we must pack because tomorrow morning we are taking the bullet train (not as fast as the maglev) to Nara, an old style Japanese city.

Chuck Newell
Nagoya, Japan
10/20/08

Nagoya Day 1

It has been said by many people, but I will say it again, Japan is a completely different country from China. Japan has been in the modern world for well over a hundred years, and everywhere we went today reminded me of a well kept southern city. Sure the cars are smaller and the houses are closer together, but most people are prosperous and the standard of living is clearly much higher than China.

[I have no idea what I hit on the keyboard, so I cannot make the underlining go away!]

Japan is a much "softer" place than China. Sure, China announced its entry into the modern world with the Olympics, but you still feel and see people struggling to survive. China has aggressive street hawkers and poor framers still scratching the earth to survive. Japan probably has a higher standard of living than the U.S., especially at the moment. China has a coarseness to it, while in Japan store clerks bow at me when I buy a bottle of tea. I have already learned not to bow back or they bow again, then I feel the need to bow again and.... You get the picture.

Anyway, our first stop in Nagoya was Nagoya Castle. This was the seat of power of the Tokugawa clan, the samurai family responsible for unifying feudal Japan in 1603. The current castle is a reconstruction of the original since the original one burned down after U.S. bombings in WWII. The castle itself was not necessarily targeted, but Nagoya has always been a manufacturing center, and the medieval castle was destroyed because of its location to important industry.

The top of the castle gives a great view of the city. Nagoya is Japan's fourth largest city, and it is still home to many important industries. Toyota headquarters is just outside of the metro area.

After visiting the castle, we went to the Tokugawa art museum. The old style gate below leads to a very modern museum building. Its collection contains many important scrolls, weapons, and art objects that once belonged to the Tokugawa family. According to the plaque in front of the gate, a descendant of the first Tokugawa shogun gave the collection to the city in the middle of the 20th century.
After the museum, we had even more Japanese culture, a bento box for lunch. Yes, that stuff in the bottom right hand corner is sashimi (raw fish). I had never had this before, but I tried the salmon and tuna. With a little soy sauce and wasabi, it was not too bad. However, I did not try the raw squid; the fried squid I had in Beijing did not agree with me.
After lunch, we toured the Meiji-Mura museum. It is a very unique place. In the mountains just outside of Nagoya, an outside museum has been created by tearing down and reconstructing Meiji period buildings. The Meiji period for Japan was from 1868-1912. This was when Japan modernized and became a world power. The museum features old train stations, post offices, churches, houses, and shops from this period. However, the most remarkable piece of this collection is the entrance to the famous Imperial Hotel,which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I thought that the entire hotel was destroyed by an earthquake in the early twentieth century, but the lobby portion of the building somehow survived. I thought it must have been a replica when I first saw it on the brochure, but it is authentic.

It has also been said that the climate of Japan and Tennessee are very similar. I would have to agree. This Sunday, it felt like a crisp fall day back home. Japan can also look like home. Look at the picture below. If I did not tell you this was taken form a hillside of the Meiji-Mura museum, you would think it was a picture of a Tennessee mountain lake. If I had not been surrounded by Japanese, I would think that I was back home.
Tomorrow we tour Japanese schools all day and then come back to the hotel for a "western-style" dinner, surely this means no raw fish.

Chuck Newell
Nagoya, Japan
10/19/08

Beijing ot Nagoya

If I had not mentioned it before, I will mention it now. Everyone in my group enjoyed Beijing more than Shanghai. Both places are gigantic cities, but Beijing has better feel to it. It is not as cram packed as Shanghai. You simply have more room to move and breath in.

Saying that, this is a picture of the outdoor mall just down from our hotel this Saturday morning. The haze and smog from the previous day is still there. Just before I took this picture, I had power walked down to Tiannemen Square, which was about 4 good sized city blocks from out hotel. I had hoped to see the daily raising of the Chinese flag. However, I did not make it in time, and even if I had, they haze would have made it too difficult to snap a photo. I even tried to go a few blocks north of the outdoor mall to get a photo of the big Catholic cathedral in Beijing, but again the haze prevented the early morning sun from shining enough light to get a decent picture.


After breakfast and packing our bags, we headed to the old Beijing bell tower, where the end of the day was signaled by the tolling of a gigantic bronze bell. The tower gives you some impressive views of the city, and luckily it began to rain and the haze started to clear away.

As we entered this bell tower, we were checked with metal detecting wands. This was odd because at no other tourist attraction did this happen. Then someone in our group remembered. It was at this bell tower that an insane Chinese national stabbed the father-in-law of the coach of the U.S. volleyball team. Obviously, we ran into no trouble here. But it is nice to know that America is not the only place that over reacts to isolated incidents.
However, I was finally able to get a picture of a Buddhist monk. I had seen a few before, but they moved to quickly for me to snap there photo. Apparently, their bald heads get quite cold in the damp autumn air.
After the tower, we had to tour a hutong, which is the name for the older neighborhoods in Beijing. Some of them are about 900 years old. Unfortunately, the one we were taken to was spruced up for the Olympics and is something of a tourist trap. My friend David form Chattanooga Christian and I had to ride in this pedicab to the "authentic" neighborhood. Again, I felt like quite the imperialist.



We felt especially odd since the guy below was our driver. How stereotypical can you get! I was not impressed by this part of the tour, especially since it ended at a Starbucks made to look like an old Beijing storefront. I guess the highlight was the man who pedaled his bike up next to our pedicab and tried to sell us a "Rolex" while still keeping pace with our hard working driver.

After lunch, we headed to the airport to make our way to Japan. In fact, we had a brief layover in another Chinese city, Tsingtao. For those of you out there who are over the age of 21, you may recognize the name of the city from the beer of the same name you can order at Chinese restaurants in America. The city of Tsingtao was once a German concession at the turn of the century, so they are known for their beer making. Unfortunately, our time spent here consisted of getting off the plane, going through customs, and getting back on the plane. Sorry, no pictures, but they had a nice new airport as well.

I am now writing to you from Nagoya, Japan. We arrived at 10pm local time, so again, I had no time or light for pictures. The hotel room is small and the neon lights in the city were plentiful. We go to an art museum and other cultural landmarks tomorrow.

Chuck Newell
Nagoya, Japan
10/18/08

Beijing Day Three

Our last full day in Beijing began with a trip to Beijing University, or Bei Da as the locals call it. It is said to be the Harvard of China. Though it has only been around since 1898, it is the premier liberal arts college in China. We attended a lecture by the man below. He is 87 years old and one of the leading experts and practitioners of Chinese calligraphy. He demonstrated his technique for us and showed us famous examples of his work.
If you look carefully at the picture below you can see an interesting juxtaposition. (AP students, do you know what that means?) This photo was taken at a lake on the university campus. If you click on the picture you can clearly see a pagoda that is several hundred years old next to a coal plant smoke stack. More on air quality later.

After lunch at the university, which had many European and American students, we drove to the nearby Summer Palace, a place where the emperor would escape the heat and stench of Beijing during the summer months. In fact, Beijing University is on land that was once part of the Summer Palace complex. Above is the Tower of Buddha Incense. This photo was taken about 2 in the afternoon , and we all started to notice that the air was becoming smoggy. I was ready to praise Beijing and its air quality because every other day has been clear and sunny. However, on this Friday afternoon we had very limited visibility and our throats became irritated because of the bad air.

After we left the Summer Palace, which was a very beautiful but crowded place, we drove past the Olympic sites in Beijing proper. Please notice how bad the air quality is. I was only a few hundred yards away from the Bird's Nest and could barely see it. The Water Cube, of Phelps Arena as we Americans like to call it, was almost impossible to see even though it was right next to the stadium. The Cube was not lit up like you saw during the Olympics, and my view was blocked by the smog and some trees, so I did not take a picture.

Finally, after a Peking Duck dinner, which was pretty tasty, I ventured to a side street market and took the picture all of you were waiting to see. That's right, you can eat deep fried starfish, scorpion, seahorse, or silk worm on stick. They also have so sea snake, or so I am told, but I did not run across it this evening. In case you are wondering, no I did not partake of these rare "delicacies" but a few members of our group munched on a seahorse or two. Salty, tough, and crunchy is how they described it. Someone videoed that particular taste test. If I get a copy, I will post it for you.

Tomorrow, we visit a hutong, one of the old style Beijing nieghborhoods. Then we catch a plane to Japan. I imagine their internet hookups will be even better so I should have no trouble continuing my blog.

Chuck Newell
Beijing
10/17/08